Optical navigation devices use a light source to illuminate a surface, such as user's finger or a desktop, and a sensor array to generate digital images from light that is reflected off of the surface. Successive digital images are compared to each other to compute relative movement information. Typical optical navigation systems output two-dimensional movement information that represents the two-dimensional movement of the surface relative to the sensor array. The two-dimensional movement information is then used to move a cursor on a display of a corresponding computing device. Various techniques are available for generating and processing movement information in optical navigation devices. While various techniques are available for generating and processing movement information, some techniques produce better results under different operating conditions.